News
Golf architect found guilty of smuggling illegal wildlife items, faces up to five years in prison
Golf architect, Keith Foster, admitted on Wednesday that his now-closed business, The Outpost, had been illegally smuggling items made from exotic and endangered animals.
Foster’s shop, located in Middleburg, Va, had been selling the likes of crocodile skin wallets, giant sea turtle shells, blades made of sawfish, mounted brown owls and ostrich feather dusters. The 66-year-old confessed to the infringements, and as well as his shop having been closed down, he also agreed to forfeit $275,000 as well as 175 wildlife products.
Foster, whose famous course designs include The Quarry in San Antonio, Dark Horse GC in Auburn, Shepherd’s Crook in Zion and Coral Canyon in St. George, made no secret of the illegal items that he was selling, openly promoting them on both the shop’s website and Instagram account.
According to court records, Foster told the agent of his sawfish blades “In truth, I shouldn’t be bringing those in..I’m the only fool in the States that probably wants to risk it,” per a Washington Post report.
Foster also disclosed to the agent that his method of deviance involved hiding the illegal products in falsely labeled shipping containers when sending them back from abroad.
An employee of The Outpost, Lauren Rhodes, told the undercover agent according to a search warrant that the shop “only ever had one thing caught, which I think is pretty good.” But ultimately the shop was raided by the authorities and closed several months ago.
The golf architect pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act, a 1900 federal law that prohibits trafficking in illegal wildlife. He is set to be sentenced on March 8, 2019, and faces a maximum of five years behind bars.
(h/t Ethan Zimman on Twitter)
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
GolfWRX is on site this week at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island for the RBC Heritage. Plenty of golfers who competed in the Masters last week will be making the quick turnaround in the Lowcountry of South Carolina as the Heritage is again one of the Tour’s Signature Events.
We have general albums for you to check out, as well as plenty of WITBs — including Justin Thomas and Justin Rose.
We’ll continue to update as more photos flow in from SC.
Check out links to all our photos, below.
General Albums
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #2
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Justin Thomas – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Rose – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Chandler Phillips – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Nick Dunlap – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Thomas Detry – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Austin Eckroat – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Jason Day – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Will Zalatoris – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Patrick Cantlay – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Ludvig Aberg – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Collin Morikawa – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Stephen Jaeger – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
Pullout Albums
- Wyndham Clark’s Odyssey putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- JT’s new Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Thomas testing new Titleist 2 wood – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey putter with triple track alignment aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Scotty Cameron The Blk Box putting alignment aid/training aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey Ai One Eleven T putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Christian Bezuidenhout – testing new Callaway Ti 340 mini driver – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele testing the Callaway Ti 340 mini driver & the DUW – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Byeong Hun An, two new L.A.B. Golf putter builds with “T” alignment – 2024 RBC Heritage
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
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Pingback: Golf club forced to close after pigs attack golfers – GolfWRX
Speedy
Dec 24, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Golf chum.
Cruella Daville
Dec 24, 2018 at 9:40 am
Whatever, we’re not talking about White Rhino horns here. Dude got screwed, but he knew he was playing with fire.
Mario
Dec 24, 2018 at 1:13 am
I heard that the straw that broke the camels back was the Dalmatian Puppy coats that he was smuggling.
joro
Dec 21, 2018 at 1:48 pm
Never heard of da bum
Jamie
Dec 21, 2018 at 10:56 am
Death penalty? Start with yourselves for suggesting such. 5 years and never working in golf architecture again will suffice.
Rich Douglas
Dec 20, 2018 at 9:54 pm
Jerk.
Dave
Dec 20, 2018 at 8:24 pm
I’ve played Dark Horse a couple times. It demonstrated to me that this guy is a mean person. Just kidding.
FiftyOneFifty
Dec 20, 2018 at 7:53 pm
I’ll take 2 sawfish jawbones, a sea turtle shell, couple elephant tusks, a rhino horn, and top it off with some lion mane fur. Cause ya know, I need that stuff, for my collections..
Jose Pinatas
Dec 20, 2018 at 7:48 pm
WTF…..
A. Ward
Dec 20, 2018 at 7:02 pm
Humanity will be judged by how we treat animals. This is shameful and he deserves jail time. We will never shop there again.
Mower
Dec 20, 2018 at 8:59 pm
Can’t believe this d-bag! If he has any tiger fur, he needs to be put down… like six feet down.
Terry, this is not a Game
Dec 20, 2018 at 5:38 pm
5 years? Too bad it’s not the death penalty. Scumbag
David Lehmann
Dec 21, 2018 at 12:05 pm
DeathPenalty. Don’t even get that for Killing unborn Humans!!